tulbura

Forms

a tulbura (third-person singular present tulbură, past participle tulburat), first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *turbulō (“to stir up, trouble”).^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} Tiktin derives the Vulgar Latin verb from Latin turbō (“to disturb, confuse”) and compares turbulentus (“restless”).^[5] Wiktionary also allows a formation on turbula (“small crowd”), a diminutive of turba (“crowd, turmoil”).^[1] Ciorănescu lists it with the adjective tulbure (under the older form turbure, from *turbulus), but takes the verb itself straight from Latin, and Pușcariu treats both in one article.^[2]

The older form of the verb is turbura, the one used in the old texts and still given as a variant by DEX.^[5][4][6] The verb survives in Aromanian turbur.^[2][7][8] Its Romance cognates are French troubler and Occitan treblar.^[2][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin and MDA2 date the first record to the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583).^[5][4] Coresi's Tetraevanghel uses turbura of the angel who “troubled the water” of the pool (John 5:4), and the Psaltirea Scheiană has „derep-ce turburi-me?” “why do you disquiet me?” (Psalm 42:5), translating Slavonic смущаеши мѧ.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The concrete sense came first: to stir up water so that it loses its clearness, and reflexively of water to churn, as in Coresi's Gospel commentary, „n-am om când se turbură apa” “I have no man, when the water is troubled”.^[3][5] It was soon said of the sky and the weather, which cloud over and darken, and of eyes and sight.^[4] The figurative senses, to disturb someone's peace, to worry, to anger, to cloud someone's judgment, are already in the old Bible translations, where it renders Ancient Greek ταράσσω (tarássō).^[5][4] MDA2 also records old senses “to revolt” and “to punish”, and one of mixing words from several languages.^[4] DCR records the recent calque tulbură-sărbătoare “spoilsport”, after French trouble-fête.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1563-1583 – first record, in the Codicele Voronețean.^[5][4]
• 1570 – turbura in Coresi's Psalter (Psalm 75:4).^[11]
• c. 1573-1578 – turburi-me in the Psaltirea Scheiană (Psalm 42:5).^[5]
• 1639 – „marea se va turbura” “the sea will be troubled” in a Paraclis.^[3]
• 1688 – turbura more than thirty times in the Bucharest Bible.^[12]
• 1705 – the form tulbura in Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make a liquid cloudy or impure; reflexive: to become cloudy (apa din pahar s-a tulburat); of the sky, to cloud over, of the weather, to turn bad.^[6][4]
2. To make lose or to lose clearness and transparency.^[6][4]
3. (figurative) To make lose or to lose one's calm; to upset, worry, alarm; to anger; to cloud one's judgment.^[6][4]
4. (figurative) To disturb, to bother, to get in someone's way.^[6][4][13]

Word family

• tulburare
• tulburător

Related words

• tulbure
• Aromanian turbur
• French troubler

Usage notes

The present is tulbur, tulburi, tulbură, stressed on the first syllable.^[6] The form turbura was the usual one until the 19th century and is still recorded as a variant.^[6][5]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. turbure
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. tulbura
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1296
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. tulbura
6. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1152
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1057
8. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 174
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8997
10. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. tulbura
11. ^ Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 75:4
12. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Deut 2:25
13. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. tulbura